Vol. 71, no. 18
Letters to the editor
Dear editor,
As I was reading Hunter Frank’s article on his road trip with friends to watch our men’s basketball team take on Whitworth, I found myself highly offended. I expected the bulk of the article to be about the game, showing undying support for Pioneer sports. Instead, I was surprised by irrelevant and offensive details that Mr. Frank chose to include.
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Billion-dollar ID regulations could help or harm U.S. security
By May of 2008, all the states of the union will be required by the federal government to redesign state drivers’ licenses to follow the guidelines of the REAL ID act of 2005. Expected to cost billions of dollars, these improvements will help technologically advance identification cards around the world and theoretically solve several problems, including terrorism and illegal immigration. Unfortunately, there are far too many faults in the current guidelines that need to be corrected. Although the REAL ID Act is riddled with flaws, the theory is still a decent one.
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The fighting hamster
Wounded veterans deserve aid
I was walking downtown the other day and passed by a homeless person begging for spare change. I stopped to talk to him, and noticed he was wearing a US Marines baseball cap. Like 1 out of 3 homeless Americans, he was a veteran. I bought him a slice of pizza, and he told me about his experiences serving in Vietnam. Before I left to get on the Raz, he said, “Semper Fidelis.”
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Two-year residency rule traps students, costs money
College is supposed to be the time in a student’s life where one leaves home and steps into the realm of adulthood, the “real” world if you will. However, that being said, I firmly believe that there is a necessary adjustment period, and that living on campus during one’s first year of college is very a reasonable rule. It is living on campus during one’s second year that I disagree with.
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Racism, poverty and corruption in New Orleans
A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina, much of New Orleans is still devastated. The storm was a natural disaster, but the human response to it has been completely inadequate. New Orleans is suffering from gentrification, corruption, and rising rates of crime and unemployment. The city is in dire straits, and in the meantime, the attention of the public has, for the most part, moved on. I spent a week there in January, trying to learn more.
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The Antiques Roadshow is coming to town
Some weeks boys just show up—the yellers, the criers, the old and young, the high school ones, the college ones you tried earnestly to forget, and of course the yawning myriad you flat out forgot to remember, all spilling out a waxy candy-coated nostalgia trip of verbal junk.
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